The transfer of patterns to objects is common and useful in various industries for a multitude of purposes. Examples include, but are not limited to labels, stencils, printing, and arts and crafts. The present invention relates to the field of pumpkin decoration for the fall holiday season. The invention is specifically useful for the quick and accurate transfer of patterns to a melon, or gourd that is to be carved to create a lantern.
Jack-o-lanterns have been carved from turnips and gourds for hundreds of years, but the practice did not become popular in North America until the late 1800's. Since that time jack-o-lanterns have become an icon to the fall season and the Halloween holiday. Jack-o-lanterns are typically placed on ground level surfaces or on raised items or structures such as benches, chairs, tables, and display stands or other surfaces.
Much innovation has occurred in the past twenty years in the field of pumpkin carving and displaying, but very little innovation has occurred in the field of jack-o-lantern carving pattern transfer technologies. Recent inventions even allow jack-o-lanterns to be suspended from overhanging locations with suspension cable equipment (Moran, U.S. Pat. No. 7,523,910), which also enables viewing of carved pumpkin from all sides. The current state of technology has been driven by the growing popularity of the Halloween holiday, where artistic individuals creatively carve pumpkins, using printed patterns that are laboriously transferred to pumpkins Few industry incumbents provide products for carving pumpkins, and also provide the majority of pumpkin carving patterns to consumers. These incumbents primarily include Pumpkin Masters™ and Funworld™. Some small companies provide pumpkin carving patterns as the sole product to customers, where more innovative and intricate patterns are provided. The primary incumbent for the pattern-only business approach is Zombie Pumpkins™. No currently marketed technologies enable a user to transfer highly intricate patterns to a pumpkin for carving without uncommon skill and significant time investment.
The predominant method for the transfer of carving patterns to pumpkins is through the application of a printed pattern onto a pumpkin. Patterns are printed onto paper or specialized film, then temporarily attached to a pumpkin. The decorator then typically pokes hundreds or thousands of small holes along the lines of the pattern, through the pattern, and into the pumpkin. The pattern sheet is then removed and the pumpkin is carved along the poked holes, typically with specialized yet common carving tools. The current state of the art is very time consuming, prone to mistakes, and difficult due to a placement of a sheet pattern onto a curved pumpkin surface. The flat pattern sheet must be folded and creased in order to approximate the shape of the generally spherical shape of the pumpkin, which further complicates the transfer process, and often-important elements of the pattern are lost in the creases. Finally, users of printed patterns often become lost during carving along the transferred pattern. It is not obvious what the final carved pattern will look like, and therefore no guidance is offered other than strict adherence to the transferred poked holes of the pattern. Other technologies include chemical film methods for transferring patterns to pumpkins (Bardeen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,446). This is another form of a printed pattern that is transferred to a pumpkin, and is not a marked improvement over other current methods. Printed stencils have also been used (Bardeen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,738), which attempt to mitigate the problem of very time consuming transfer of patterns. Other inventions directly transfer a pattern and remove sections of the pumpkin by punching a pattern (Brown U.S. Pat. No. 6,342,175) in a similar manner as a cookie cutter. Others have developed patterns that have many poking mechanisms built into the pattern sheet (Lani, U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,036) that can be pressed through the pumpkin. Many inventors have developed similar methods and means for transferring patterns to pumpkins, yet none of these solve the problems stated herein. The technologies in the state of the art destroy the pattern materials and are not reusable. Finally, the present technologies are not adjustable in size, as the patterns are of set size. Users may find it very difficult to increase or decrease the size of a pattern in order to accommodate a smaller or larger pumpkin.
There is need for an invention that will allow any person of average skill to quickly and accurately transfer intricate patterns onto a pumpkin in very little time, while also creating an obvious objective pattern transfer that minimizes mistakes, and is also reusable. It is a further need for an invention that enables the user to select the size of the image to be transferred in order to accommodate larger or smaller objects. It is finally a need of the present field to allow a pattern to be quickly changed at any time during the pattern selection and transfer process without additional setup, or loss of time and effort.